Data centers in Linn County

Google is building a data center campus on 414 acres at the Big Cedar Industrial Center in Cedar Rapids, part of a 576 million dollar initial project inside the company's broader 7 billion dollar Iowa investment. Construction was underway by mid 2025, with the first building targeted to open in 2026. This is one of three data center projects now moving forward in the same industrial park, alongside QTS and a smaller Oppidan facility.

QTS is building a data center campus at the Big Cedar Industrial Center in Cedar Rapids that could grow to seven buildings on 612 acres, with the company's stated investment growing from 750 million dollars to as much as 10 billion dollars over time. QTS describes its cooling system as using no water on an ongoing basis. The company has agreed to pay up to 18 million dollars over 20 years into a city community betterment fund.

A third, much smaller data center is planned in Cedar Rapids at 1515 33rd Avenue SW, on land already zoned for light industrial use so it did not need a special city council vote. The building permit, valued at about 101.5 million dollars, was approved on June 22, 2026 for a roughly 98,000 square foot facility. The project is owned by CLOP Cedar Rapids LLC and is being developed by Oppidan Connect, which also built a smaller data center in Des Moines.

Google wants to build a data center campus of up to six buildings on 545 acres in unincorporated Linn County, just north of Palo and next to the closed Duane Arnold nuclear plant. After Linn County passed new water and payment rules for data centers in February 2026, Google said it would instead annex the land into the small city of Palo, which is now writing its own zoning rules. Neighbors have raised concerns about water drawn from the Cedar River and about the project moving into a small city with less staff to review it.